Known Relatives: Aphrodite/Venus
(mother), Dionysus (father), Zeus and Hera (paternal
grandparents), Ouranos (maternal grand"parent", as well
as paternal great-great grandfather), and the respective
relationships to the other Olympian Gods

Aliases: Master Priapus

Place of Birth: Lampsacus,
Phrygia (part of modern day Turkey)

Base of Operations: Currently unknown;
formerly an unnamed island in the Mediterranean Sea;

Powers: As an Olympian Gods, Priapus
likely possesses some degree of superhuman strength (Class 10-25)
and durability, as well as being virtually immortal--immune to
the effects of aging and conventional disease, etc.

He has a virtually insatiable libido and possessed virtually
limitless stamina. He also was characterized by extremely deviant
interests. Priapus possesses the ability to make others feel like
they are living out their darkest fantasies. He does this by
releasing "succubi and incubi of the mind", which
appear as little spirits that enter the form of his target.

While in possession of Vatsayana's Tryst, his powers were
significantly amplified. He could make the hidden fantasies of
others take solid form, and act under his control. His physical
abilities were presumably enhanced as well.

The power of the Carnal Serpent enhanced his physical and carnal
powers to an even greater degree, such that he could mentally
enslave others at will. He could also form warriors out of dust.

Priapus is
experienced with modern technology.

His abilities give him a loyal following who obey his every
command, either through desire to please, or through fear.

History: Born in Lampsacus in Phrygia,
he was an ugly satyr-like god who was extraordinarily well
endowed. Most of the gods wanted little to do with him. Dionysus
gave a donkey the power of speech to be his friend and traveling
companion, but the two actually got into an argument over who had
the most sexual virility. Losing the argument, Priapus killed the
donkey.

Priapus' activities over the following
millennia are unknown, but his abilities and strength waned some
over time. To maximize his search for unlawful carnal knowledge,
he sought the power of the Carnal Serpent.

(Terror INC#10 (fb) - BTS) - Priapus commissioned the monk
Brother Randi to hire the mercenary Terror
to locate the parts of Vatsayana's Tryst, to guide him to the Carnal Serpent.

(Terror INC#11 (fb) - BTS) - To assure successful acquisition,
Priapus also manipulated a Chicago Museum of Natural History professor to entice
the Chicago Spectator to send Luke Cage to find the Tryst. He similarly
manipulated a Paris museum's curator to hire Silver Sable to obtain the Tryst.

(Terror INC#10) - Randi -- while licking Priapus' glove -
-told his master that Terror was coming. As his reward, Priapus granted him him
"the pleasures of the flesh" via his succubi of the mind.

(Terror INC#11) - Randi told Terror of the Carnal Serpent,
leading him to believe that he wished to possess it to protect others from being
corrupted by it. Terror accepted the mission to obtain it, though he declined
payment of one million dollars, instead asking for a prayer to "whatever it is
that's in the top office," on the off chance that he might one day have a
reunion with the woman he once loved.
Priapus later met with Randi rewarding him with more sensual
pleasure than he could handle, causing him to die in ecstasy and pain.
Terror's agent, Rekrab, directed him to the last reported
sighting of the Tryst, seven years ago in the hands of a man named Bo Ting, at
an outpost village just south of the Arctic Circle. Terror's guides attempted to
kill him to gain the Tryst themselves, but he instead slew them, using their
body parts to complete the trek on his own.
Silver Sable obtained part of the Tryst 28 miles south of of
Cairo, where it had been held for twelve years by Al Alami, who had been driven
insane as a result. Al Alami committed suicide after realizing he had lost the
chance to get any closer to the Carnal Serpent.
Cage obtained the third part of the Tryst in New Mexico,
forcefully taking it from Jed Paradi, who had found it in the bank vault of a
crumbling ghost town. Paradi had hoarded his tantric prize for 15 years,
enjoying its promise of sexual magic. After Cage took the Tryst, Paradi blew up
the vault, trying to assure that if he couldn't have the Tryst, then no one
could.
From the corpse of Bo Ting -- who had taken the Tryst with
him as he perished in the frozen wastes after realizing he would never gain its
other sections and thus would never find the Carnal Serpent -- Terror learned
that he had only found one third of the Tryst. Terror's agent Alexis Primo
informed him of the other mercenaries looking for the portions of the Tryst, and
he ambushed Cage aboard a train and took his portion of the Tryst. He similarly
confronted Sable on an ocean-liner and demanded her portion as well.

(Cage I#15) - Sable fought off Terror long enough for Cage,
via information from Dakota North, to find them. In the ensuing scuffle, Terror
escaped into depths of the ship with two of the fragments, while Cage knocked
out Sable when she tried to stop him. Cage and Sable later teamed up, while
Terror ambushed them, taking a hostage to force them to surrender the final
portion. Leaping overboard to a waiting small craft, he united the Tryst, but
found himself exempt from whatever gifts it offered. Cage leapt overboard and
caught up to him, taking the Tryst and holding Terror's wrist to prevent his
escape, and Terror decided to recoup his losses, releasing his own arm and then
swimming to shore. Cage paddled to shore.
Priapus monitored their progress and approach via the
internet.

(Silver Sable#13) - Thinking Cage had stolen her portion of
the Tryst, she attacked him, but they came to an agreement, and he surrendered
the entire Tryst, not wanting anything to do with its dark power. Terror
ambushed them again, but was driven away, and they traveled to the rendezvous on
Priapus' island. Sable delivered the entire Tryst to Priapus, who was initially
impressed. However, when she insisted on full payment plus bonus for her
difficulties, he took offense, pulling her close both to kiss her (sending her
into a state of pure bliss) and snatch the Tryst. Cage moved to stop him, but
Priapus overloaded his pleasure centers, then cut open his own palm. Touching
the Tryst to his bleeding palm, Priapus was transformed into a more powerful
form able to track the Serpent. Cage and Sable rallied to stop him, but he
easily swatted them away and his minions caught them both into a net and dumped
them into a shark-filled tank. Terror recovered and continued toward the island.

(Terror Inc#12) - Learning of Priapus' betrayal of Cage and
Sable, Terror helped them escape the trap, and the three joined forces to stop
Priapus.
Priapus arrived in his Spanish base, where his servant Libido
prepared his brothels. The Tryst, which he had pierced through the skin in his
chest, gave their desires substance, which fueled the
swingers' sexuality, and the power of their lust was fed back into Priapus, an
amorous cycle charging him for the final journey.
However, Cage, Sable, and Terror emptied the brothels,
cutting off their power, and they then ambushed Priapus, but after they'd each
struck a blow Priapus fought back, sending solid-form versions of their desires
to attack them.

(Cage I#16) - While the heroes overcame their attackers,
Priapus escaped, tracking the Carnal Serpent to the jungle of Venezuela, near
Cerro Duida. There he found its temple, which he unlocked with the Tryst. The
Serpent sensed his approach, and Priapus allowed it to consume him. The heroes
followed Priapus to
the temple of the Serpent, and battled and slew the Serpent.
However, this was the step necessary for Priapus to complete the
final portion of the ritual to attain the full power of the
Carnal Serpent, and he tore free from its corpse, reborn yet again, now a god. Using
his vastly amplified power, he enslaved the wills of the three heroes, forcing
them to become his acolytes.

(Silver Sable#14) - Priapus forced his acolytes to assault a
monastery in Italy's Appennini mountains near the Tiber river, ending their
silence and abstinence as part of his plot to bring about a new religion, with
the monks to serve as his new messengers. None of the heroes could resist
Priapus' will in any way, until Terror swapped one of his own limbs, which enabled him to shake Priapus' control by changing
his own nature. Terror then attacked Priapus, distracting him
sufficiently to allow the others to shake his control as well. They briefly
stunned him and fled, after which he ensorceled the monks and created new
warriors from the very dust and and sent them all to attack the heroes. Cage,
Sable, & Terror fought off their attackers, and when Priapus confronted them
anew,
Sable pretended to be enthralled with Priapus and began kissing
him, allowing him to slip a rope around his neck while he was
thus distracted. Terror pulled on the rope, choking Priapus,
while Cage rushed forward and tore the Vatsayana Tryst (which was
fixed to his chest) from his body. The disruption in energy flow
caused the Carnal Serpent to be reborn inside of Priapus, and it
tore free from his body, consuming his form as it did. The
Serpent claimed to bear no grudges against the heroes, reclaimed
the Tryst, and vanished.

Brilliant write up! What a hoot.
Reminded me of the disbelief we all experienced that we got that thing out in
the first place.
Priapus was just supposed to be a super freak with a
salacious, historical reference in his name. He was definitely ancient-old
and would probably have been the *inspiration* for the god/legend, but at no
time did we ever conceive of him as a deity per se. So I'd spin it that way:
that he was some mutant deviant whose misadventures through time had devolved
into the god-story, or had intersected to confuse the two. But if we're going to
be honest, he wasn't supposed to *be* _the_ god. <D.G. further commented
that if Priapus were to receive an official entry, he would prefer everything
nebulous: neither confirm nor deny him to be an Olympian God>
As an FYI, Greg, Marcus and I all worked up the story line
together and affixed our "pass the baton" points in an overarching
outline. We were then responsible individually for how each of us got things to
that pass off point by the end of a particular issue. (How we did it was up to
each of us within our own titles.)
--D.G. Chichester

There is no exact description which confirms
the fact that Priapus in these stories is the mythological
figure, but his appearance and behavior is so similar that I
can't think of any reason to suspect that he is not. If he is
not, than he is an individual who has taken great pains to
duplicate the form and nature of the original Priapus, and no
origins or facts about his previous life have been given.

Dionysus put the image of the donkey slain by
Priapus in the stars as one of the constellations.

Priapus was never worshipped much in Greece
until the time of Alexander the Great, but several phallic
statues of Priapus have been found in Western Turkey where
Phrygia once existed.

You may think this profile is a joke,
but I assure you it's all true. Go read the issues--you can
probably get all 7 issues for a buck or two, if you can find
them.

Priapus is the origin of the medical term
"priapism", which means a persistent abnormal erection
of the penis, accompanied by pain and tenderness.
--Back in vet school, when we were first taught this word, we
were told it meant a persistent erection lasting hours to days.
One of my classmates, a good ole' boy from Tennessee responded,
"Is that abnormal?"

Just be happy this story came out before the
MAX comics, or that it wasn't done by Garth Ennis!

A snake of immense power. It
was originally described thus: "an artifact of great
erotic power--an ancient totem of splendiferous power! It's been
blamed for everything from the obscenity that forced God the
Creator to destroy Sodom and Gomorra to the ecstasy that inspired
the emergence of Europe from the Dark Ages! Sadly, one cannot
afford to hope for the divine qualities of an object with the
potential for such corruption!"

The Carnal Serpent's legend is woven
through Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, and Hebrew mythology, with a wake of death and
destruction common to all.

When they actually found the Carnal Serpent, it was in fact a
living entity. Thus, what, if any, connection it has to its
original description is unknown. It was located in the Venezuelan
Jungle. It consumed Priapus, but was then slain by Cage, Silver
Sable, and Terror. Priapus used its body to amplify his own
abilities, but when Vatsayana's Tryst was torn from him, it
caused the Serpent to be reborn anew. The Serpent consumed
Priapus in the act of reforming itself, reclaimed the Tryst, and
vanished to parts unknown.

--Terror#11-BTS, Cage#16 (Silver Sable#14

Vatsayana's Tryst

A
composite item which is somehow connected to the Carnal Serpent.
In and of itself, it can magnify erotic abilities, but its
primary use is to track the energies of and locate the Carnal
Serpent. In addition, it serves as the key to open the temple of
the Serpent.

Realizing the danger posed by the power of the Serpent, the Tryst
was broken into three parts and scattered across the Earth, to
prevent it from being used to locate the Serpent. Cage, Silver
Sable, and Terror were duped into locating the three parts for
Priapus, who took the assembled Tryst for himself.

--Terror#12 (Cage#15, Sable#13, Terror#12, Cage#16, Sable#14

Brother Randi was a monk living
in Greece. However, he is secretly a servant/worshipper of Priapus. Randi gave Terror false information about the Carnal
Serpent in order to send him to attain it for Priapus. Randi, however, was
ultimately slain by Priapus.

--Terror#10 (11

Libido is one of Priapus'
deviant (not the race!) servants/worshippers, and is based at
Priapus' Mediterranean Island. He is all about pleasure, and
isn't much use in any sort of violent situation.